Rafael Esquivel
by CountryDream14
Summary: Raf is no longer a boy.


**Hello fellow Transformies!**

**So it's been awhile since I finished the end of the show and movie but I was dinking around on my old (and only) laptop and found this. So I edited it and added a bit more to the end. Originally I was only going to do a oneshot (and I think it would still work perfectly fine as one as it is currently) but then I thought to myself 'Why not add more?' So I will _eventually _but not right away and definately not often, I can only promise to my best. As with most of you out there, I have a life offline that I must attend to (eating, sleeping, you get it).**

**And by the way, I will always accept constructive critism, but please, I am a person with feelings and I know how to bring the hurt (that was a joke but I do know how)so please keep the flames to an absolute minimum.**

**Thanks and Merry Christmas!**

**\- Rocky**

* * *

Rafael Esquivel, fourteen-year-old sophomore, had a promising future. He was in the top percentile of all his classes, had a brain that could solve a complicated algebra problem within mere seconds, and was a hacker for the military which gave extremely generous benefits, much to his mother's flabbergasted shock (she had been told that his skills were essential for the U.S. government and would like to hire him, which wasn't untrue, and she had given in after about a week of pleading from both her son and his current employers). And he led a happy, if not busy, lifestyle.

But his _life _was far from happy.

Last year had seen the end of his happiness.

Rafael now lived in Washington D.C. and attended a high-class academy with, much to his pleasure, semester courses involving computers and technology that wasn't just about learning to use a keyboard and Microsoft Word. He had boarding within the halls and had met many geniuses like himself, and quickly found the challenge of keeping up to others rather exciting. He'd even taken up basketball.

He regularly talked to Agent Fowler too, and kept in touch with his friends from Jasper, Nevada, or at least _most _of them, and found that the contact was reassuring, like they held a part of himself and if they disappeared, then so would he.

Miko Nakadai, who had been a happy-go-lucky fifteen-year-old aspiring rock star when he had met her, had moved backed to Tokyo soon after the events, her personality twanging with grief like a guitar with snapped strings. She was now seventeen and her life consisted of sailor uniforms and a large prep school. Last he'd heard, she was looking forward to moving to the U.S. and joining the military, much to her parent's ire. But she had proven herself as a capable soldier and intended to keep that reputation. After all, what was a Wrecker if they never lived up to their title?

Jack Darby, and his mother, Mrs. Darby, had moved to Minnesota around the same time that Rafael had left for the academy. The now nineteen-year-old still seemed to be the goody-two-shoes that he'd been back in Jasper and was back to working part-time at a local Dairy Queen. Rafael had laughed at that, wondering what it was about Jack and fast food franchises. Jack had also started an early apprenticeship at a local bike shop. Apparently his employer was impressed at how much he knew and the ideas he had brought with him from the South. So far, the worst complaint that Jack had mentioned was how cold it got in the winter. He'd be very happy when he finished college and could afford to move south again. He was planning to open his own shop down there, hopefully.

Mrs. Darby had adjusted just fine to the northern weather and was working full-time as a nurse once more at a local hospital. Agent Fowler had also bought a getaway apartment for his vacation days, whenever he could scrape some together, in a town only half-hour away. Rafael had started a small betting pool with Miko on the date when Jack was going to have a stepdad. So far, the target of the two's amusement hadn't found out yet and was completely oblivious.

Ratchet, the cranky, old, stubborn, caring, Autobot medic had followed Fowler to D.C. and was housed in a top secret, ordinary looking warehouse outside the city limits and was the only known Cybertronian left on Earth.

Rafael sighed as he shut the small wooden box full of memorabilia from two year's past and stood up from the bench in the middle of the school grounds, overlooking the small flower patch whose buds were just starting to open into full bloom. Languidly, and in a bit of a daze, Rafael walked back to his dorm room and shut the door behind him. He walked over to the aged dresser at the foot of his bed and stuffed the box into the drawer holding his jeans before quickly shutting it and leaping up onto the twin bed he had claimed as his.

If only Bumblebee could see him now, he mused.

Raf missed his guardian and best friend to the point that a few tears would spring into his eyes every time he took the time to actually think about him. He had been, still is, the boy's role model and older brother figure; his best confidant and fellow gamer a boy could ever hope to have.

'Boy,' Raf thought, a sad smile on his lips, 'I think that I left my true boyhood behind two years ago.' He had matured more than he had been at the time they all had met the Autobots, they all had.

A sudden loud knock at the door startled him out of his thoughts as he started and quickly got up to open the door. "Hello, who…" "Raf, we need your help." interrupted a familiar voice from a familiar face. Raf shook his head slightly and gave a slight smile.

"What can I do for you today Agent Fowler?"


End file.
